Son's of England!

The phrase “local people… global impact” was once coined and used albeit at times tongue in cheek, but the events at the last GA could not have reinforced this statement more. For those of you unaware after 9 years in the English movement I packed up my gimmicks, games and pin badges and headed to Kosovo. Due to staff availability and time constraints I was asked to represent Kosovo at the General Assembly… in Manchester.

Now I was born roughly 30 minutes from Manchester in a town called Bolton, can you imagine my pride representing a country and National movement so close to where I lived for so long? It really was a homecoming! This was only topped by a young man that I worked with at Bolton YMCA turning up representing YMCA France!?!?!?!

So just to recap: 2 guys from Bolton, attending a European General Assembly in Manchester representing France and Kosovo respectively! 

In terms of conferences I have attended I feel the English YMCA really raised the bar in terms of hospitality and venue for YMCA conferences. Topped by an excellent English night with Bingo and a pub Quiz I was certainly proud to be a son of England. The ILP guys led an impressive tombola and a disco finished off the final night perfectly.

This year’s theme was around healthy living and I was particularly impressed with YMCA Canada’s presentation and take on the subject. Not every key note speaker was for me but the general feeling was it was a success. A new initiative this year was ‘table talks’ this was simply different tables with different subjects and if you wanted to debate, learn or share you went along to one. A personal favourite table talk for me was the YMCA of Montenegro presenting where they were up to, and I certainly understood some of the issues they face back home in Kosovo.

Personal highlights from the GA for me include spending time and understanding YES, sitting with the Lithuanian delegation at their first GA, taking a superb haul of pin badges (11) for a GA, spending time with friends from all over Europe, meeting a young man from Kosovo who was actually there with the Swedish movement and being inspired by change agents and young leaders.

The last thing I would like to say is that I was really inspired by my roommate Andre that week, most nights ended up in deep discussion and a shared passion to change how young people are viewed within YMCA Europe. To echo my friends words and something I said many time that week in YES and at the GA… we must stop referring to the ‘young’ guys (anyone under 30) as the future because as Juan showed in his presentation and as YES, GLYN, ILP and the change agent’s programmes are proving… 

 WE ARE THE NOW!